To combat the effects of wear-intensive or corrosively inhospitable environments, surfaces of components of tools and other equipment are commonly coated with protective coatings. In particular, hard coatings can be included on these surfaces to improve wear characteristics of surfaces susceptible to abrasion and erosion, and to prolong the lifetime of the components and assemblies of components. Such hard coatings include various ceramics or metals. Polymer coatings may be used to protect from corrosion. However, polymeric coatings can fail at elevated temperatures or under high load, and conventional metal coatings are lacking in certain aspects such as strength-to-weight ratio.
Therefore, coatings having improved mechanical properties that can protect or enhance the performance of components and tools would be beneficial.